Submission explosion

Our 2010 CityBeat Photo Contest

First Place: One America the Beautiful by Ryan Rivera of Mission Valley

Egads! Last year, we received 185 submissions to our seventh photo contest. Damn! We thought. That’s pretty good. Um, yeah. This year, we got 905 entries. 905! Look, we knew that allowing folks to e-mail their submissions rather than requiring the physical delivery of prints or discs would entice a few more contestants, and we knew that our first-ever partnership with the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) would widen our reach a bit more. But 905? What in the Ansel Adams is going on here?!

With a nearly five-fold increase in submissions, our judges had no idea what they were getting themselves into. That’s why we’re so appreciative of their time and careful consideration. In addition to editors David Rolland and Kelly Davis, the panel included CityBeat contributors Aaryn Belfer, Justin McLachlan and Will Parson, CityBeat art director Adam Vieyra and our special guest judge Deborah Klochko, MoPA’s executive director.

For the first time, we’ll celebrate the contest with a public event, where we’ll display more than two-dozen of the best photos and chat about them over beverages and appetizers. It’ll be from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 23 (we hope you picked up this copy of the paper early!), at MoPA, 1649 El Prado in Balboa Park. Please join us. Meantime, enjoy the very best of the best, spread across the next four pages, with our first-, second- and third-place awardees, a couple of honorable mentions and a bunch of other goodies. Congratulations to all the winners.